Ten months earlier, the last time Mejia set foot on a major league mound, he threw 91 not-so-sublime pitches in a 6-2 loss to Atlanta.

Ten months later, he carved up the Nationals with his cutter.

In the second inning, he froze Ian Desmond with a 95 mph cutter. In the third, he slowed it down, fanning Jayson Werth with some nasty 88 mph magic.

At one point in the middle innings, he retired seven straight batters. He collected three strikeouts in the sixth – whiffing Washington’s No. 3, 4 and 6 hitters.

“I haven’t seen him that good in a long time,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “I thought he pitched an outstanding game.”

By the end of the afternoon, he had pieced together seven strong innings and Collins was floating the possibility of using Mejia as part of a six-man rotation.

Collins said he does not think anyone has given up on Mejia. It is more a case of a star falling back into the pack of ordinary arms.

“He was the rage in 2010,” Collins said. “Everybody thought the sky’s the limit. And then the injuries have set him way back.”

He credited the team’s minor league rehab pitching coordinator Jon Debus for fueling Mejia’s return to this level.

“When [Mejia] was rehabbing, [Debus] said, ‘There’s no reason why your name shouldn’t be in the hat,’Ÿ” Collins said. “Ÿ‘At one time, you were the guy. You were the big dog here.’

“And I think today he showed that he should be in the mix.”

Harvey remains the biggest bulldog in the Mets’ yard. In the nightcap, he held the Nationals down for eight innings. The most dramatic moment arrived with one out in the eighth. Washington sent up Bryce Harper to pinch hit, leaving one phenom to stare into the eyes of another.

Harvey won this confrontation, inducing a harmless ground ball from Harper.

But before Harvey put on another show in the nightcap, Mejia owned the afternoon. Between games, Mejia answered questions about his resurrection. A reporter asked Mejia if he thought this had been his best day in the majors.

Mejia smiled, then turned the question on the reporter. “What do you think?” he asked.

The reporter said yes, he thought it was Mejia’s best day in the majors.